Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-08-19

y: TIE I,l HAMrross, July sl.a ~ . Rev: T.
ing was on the aEmployments q Heaven,
to pass in the thirtieth year, inthe fourth
month, in the fifth day of tSe month
as l was among the captive by the
river of Chebar, that the heasens were
| opened"
Ezekiel, with others, had bSen expa-
triated, and while in foreign sAvery was
standing on the banks of the tpyal canal,
which he and other serfs haS been con-
demned to dig by the order of Nebuchad-
nezzar-this royal canal, in thetext, called
the river of Chebar-the illuarious exile
had visions of Heaven. Indeed, it is al
most always SO that the brightest visions
of Heaven come not to those tho are on
mountain top of prosperity, but to some
in Mamertine dungeon, or to SOM Ezeliel
standing on the banks of ditch he Lad
been compelled to dig-yea, to tb weay,
to the heart broken, to those whom sorrow
has banished.
The text is very particular to give u the
exact time of the vision. 1t was 10 the
thirtieth year, and in the fourth month,
and in the fifth day of the month. So you
have had visions of earth you sail never
forget. You remember the var, you re-
member the day, you rememEr the hour.
Why may not we have sonr such vision
this morning, and it be in til sixth month
and in the fourth day of the aonth?
The question is often siently asked,
though perhaps never audibl propounded:
"What are our departed Chistian friends
doing now?" The question more easily
answered than you mightpenaps suppose.
oh, <1,o~a 1,oc mi
gence from the heavenly city and We seem
dependent upon the story of eighteen CEN
turtles ago, still I think ve may from
strongest inference decide what are the
present occupations of CIR transferred
kinsfolk.
After God has made nr.ure he never
eradicates the chief characteristics of its
temperament. You never knew o man
phlegmatic in Temperament to become
sanguine in temperament. You never
knew q man sanguine inlemperament to
become phlegmatic in temperament. Con-
version plants new PRINCIPLES in the soul,
but Paul and John are ust as different
from each other after conversion as they
were different from each oher before con-
version. If conversion dos not eradicate
the prominent characteristics of the tenn
permanent neither will death eradicate them
You have, then, only " sum in sub.
traction and sum in addition to decide
what are the employmentsof your departed
friends in the better wsrld. You are tc
subtract from them all earthly grossness
and add all earthly goodness, and then yor
are to come to the conclusion that they
are doing now in Heaven What ip their bes
moments they did on earth. The reason
that so many people never start fol
Heaven is because they could not stand i
if they got there if it should turn out tt
be the rigid and formal pAce some people
photograph it.
We like to come to church, but we would
not want to stay here to next Christmas
We like to hear the hallelujah chorus, bu
we would not want to hear it all the time
for fifty centuries. 1t might be on some
great occasion it would be possibly com,
Portable to wear O crown of gold weighing
several pounds, but it would be an afflic.
ton to wear such q crown foreve:. In
other words, We run the descriptions Of
Heaven into the ground while wemake
that which was intended as especial anG
celebrative to be the exclusive employment
of The Heaven. You might as we'll, il
asked to describe the habits of American
society, describe Decoration Day, or
Fourth of July, or an autumnal Thanks.
giving as though it were all the time thai
way.
am not going to speculate in regard 10
the future world, but must by inevitable
laws of inference and deduction and com.
mon sense conclude that in Heaven we
will be just as different from each o.hel
as we are now different, and hence thai
there will be at least as many different EN-.
pigments in the celestial world as there
are employments here. Christ is to be the
great love, the great joy, the great rapture
the great worship of Heaven; but will tina,
abolish employment? No more than love
on earth-paternal, flial, fraternal, con-
jugal love, abolish earthly occupation.
In the first place, remark that oil those
of our departed Christian friends who on
earth found great JOY in the fine arts art
now indulging their tastes in the same
direction. On earth they had their glad
dest pleasures amid pictures and statu.
airy, and in the study of the laws Of
light and shade and perspective. Have
you any idea that that atfiuence of facult,
at death collapsed and persisted? Why SO
when there is more for them to look at
and they have keener appreciation of thu
beautiful, and they stand amid the vsrv
looms where the sunsets and the rainbowl
and the spring mornings are woven?
Are you SO obtuse rs to suppose tn
because the painter drops his easel and The
sculptor his chisel and the engraver hi.
knife that therefore that taste, which he
was charging and intensifying for fort,
or fifty years, is entirely obliterated
These artists, or these friends of art, OF
earth worked in coarser material and will
imperfect brain and frail hand. Now the,
have carried their art into larger libertiel
and into wider circumference. They are
at their old business yet, but without tn,
fatigues, without the limitations, withou
hindrances of the terrestrial studio.
Raphael could now improve upon hi
masterpiece of "Michael the Archangel
now that he has seen him, and could i'm
prove upon his masterpiece of the aHol,
Family" now that he has visited them
Michael Angelo could better present tn
"Last Judgment" after he has seen it
fash and heard the rumbling battering
rams of its thunder. Exquisite color
here, graceful lines here, powerful CHA
roscuro here; but am persuaded that til
grander studios and the brighter gallerie
are higher up by the winding marble stair
of the sepulcher, and that Turner an
Holman, Hunt and Rembrandt, and Titia1
and Paul Veronese, if they exercised savin
faith in the Christ whom they portraye
upon the canvas, are painters vet, bu
their strength of faculty multiplied lei
thousand fold. The reason that God too
away their eye and their hand and thei
brain was that he might give them some
thing more timber, more wleluy. NOR